Meeker Internet Report: Too Much Streaming, Not Enough Security

Mary Meeker made her yearly appearance at the Code Conference, dropping data on everything from app and device usage, privacy and security, and digital healthcare to the tech giants ruling the web. We’ve distilled 300+ slides to 10 easy takeaways.

Meeker's title is different (she left her longtime post at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to found a new firm called Bond Capital), but the rapid-fire 300+ slide presentation is the same. We read the whole thing so you don't have to.

Meeker's report includes just about every internet-related buzzword and emerging tech category, from advertising and streaming to social media, cybersecurity, and a lot more. We picked out 10 of the biggest themes from this year's presentation, which you can check out below.

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1. Privacy Is a Key Selling Point

The prolonged public reckoning over how Facebook and other social media platforms handle data has, at long last, made privacy a core feature requirement for consumers. Facebook is pivoting toward privacy, Apple continues to thumb its nose at competitors by touting the privacy features of its hardware and software products, and the rollout of GDPR has necessitated greater privacy controls on a global scale. Meeker projects that Facebook's revenue growth will continue to decelerate amid these concerns, and that more consumers care about privacy than a year ago amid greater consumer privacy pushes from regulators everywhere from the California to the EU.

2. Too Many Streaming Services

The explosion in online subscription services, from music and video streaming to cloud-based software and e-commerce, has dramatically weakened the consumer value proposition of subscribing to just one or a handful of services that can meet your needs. Meeker said the reality is that customer acquisition cost (CAC) can't exceed lifetime value (LTV) for very long.

Looking at the glut of available and impending content streaming apps, the 2019 Internet Trends Report states that the availability of a free trial or tier is the most important factor in trying a new service. Even as players spend billions bankrolling movies and shows for their services, content libraries and exclusives aren't as important to users as value and affordability.

3. Tech Giants Keep Eating More of the Ad Market

Facebook and Google's share of the digital advertising market continues to grow, other tech and social media corporations are gaining steam, and everyone else is left with an increasingly smaller slice of what's left. Meeker found that Google's ad revenue raised 1.4x in 2018, Facebook's ballooned by 1.9x, and the combination of Amazon, Twitter, Snap, and Pinterest's ad revenue grew 2.6x. Advertising is how a lot of Big Tech makes its money, and this complete disruption of the ad market has wrought collateral damage across industries, most notably in digital media.

4. Image and Video Sharing Is Skyrocketing

Images and videos are becoming many online users' primary form of communication. Meeker said this is owed to a combination of factors including better smartphone cameras and batteries, faster cellular data and Wi-Fi, and the popularity of image-sharing apps headlined by Instagram. The annual number of new photos taken globally has eclipsed a trillion, and image sharing has skyrocketed as IG's monthly active user base has swelled. The trend has been buoyed not just by Instagram, but on a much heavier focus on images, video, and ephemeral messaging such as Stories across Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and beyond.

5. Drinking From the Data Firehose

One of Meeker's slides quotes Looker CEO Frank Bien, who said "data is the new application." Business Intelligence (BI) company Looker was recently acquired by Google Cloud, less than a week before Salesforce dropped $15.7 billion on BI leader Tableau. Meeker said that businesses, consumers, and even regulators are all "drinking from the data fire hose" as more data is collected, stored in the cloud, optimized, and analyzed by AI to streamline processes, target products, and improve customer satisfaction. No matter where you look, data is king.

6. The Rise of Digital Healthcare

An entire section of the Internet Trends Report is dedicated to digital healthcare. As healthcare and insurance costs continue to rise in the US, the industry is slowly digitizing more routine medical tasks to make things cheaper and more convenient. Online health information, online provider reviews, mobile tracking, wearables tracking vitals like the Apple Watch Series 4, on-demand drug deliveryy, and live video telemedicine appointments are all on the rise. Hospitals and medical practices still have a long way to go with electronic health records (EHRs), predictive analytics for diagnosis, and other data-driven AI healthcare technology, but it's all trending upwards. Not to mention the growing database of genetic data owed to the rise in DNA testing kits.

7. We Can't Put Down Our Devices

Even as global smartphone shipments continue to decline, internet use around the world remains on a steady incline. The report found that 26 percent of adults say there are online "almost constantly," up from 21 percent three years ago. Users are also taking more actions to reduce smartphone and social media usage, both among adults as well as parents setting stricter boundaries with their children. Apple, Google, Facebook, and YouTube have all released their own apps or features to help fight tech addiction, even if it took growing public and shareholder backlash to force them to roll out basic usage monitoring and time tracking tools and compromise Silicon Valley's hunger for "engagement" at all costs.

8. Social Media's Amplifying, Polarizing Power

Even though Meeker found that social media use on the whole is slightly decelerating, a good chunk of the slide deck was devoted to the power of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to amplify trending topics, ideologies, misinformation, and abusive or harassing behavior. The report also talks about how polarizing social media can be, "allowing people to communicate exclusively with people like themselves," and how all the platforms have struggled to consistently enforce standards around moderating hateful content. In 2019, this trend only looks worse.

9. Cyber Attacks Grow In Scope, Sophistication

In an era where cyber warfare can influence elections and take entire countries offline, the scope and sophistication of cyberattacks are only getting more widespread and advanced. Meeker talked about a rise in not only state-sponsored attacks, but large-scale data provider attacks, and crypto extortion and ransomware; and the attacks are all getting faster and more targeted toward sensitive data. Attackers hone in on lax security practices and system vulnerabilities, and often it's the consumers and citizens that suffer for a catastrophic data breach, not the corporations.

10. Global Internet Freedom Is Decreasing

Even as more of the planet becomes connected, internet freedom is declining in many areas of the globe. The report talks about how highly regulated internet laws taking a page out of China's book can favor state control and censorship, with more and more countries adopting policies that censor political, social, or religious content, increase surveillance practices, block social media and messaging platforms, in more authoritarian countries even disconnect the internet for political reasons. Meeker also touches on how the growth of AI has brought with it implict algorithmic biases, and the report covers how more people are calling for an "algorithmic bill of rights."

About Rob Marvin

Rob Marvin is PCMag's Associate Features Editor. He writes features, news, and trend stories on all manner of emerging technologies. Beats include: startups, business and venture capital, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, AI, augmented and virtual reality, IoT and automation, legal cannabis tech, social media, streaming, security, mobile commerce, M&A, and entertainment. Rob was previously Assistant Editor and Associate Editor in PCMag's Business section. Prior to that, he served as an editor at SD Times. He graduated from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. You can also find his business and tech coverage on Entrepreneur and Fox Business. Rob is also an unabashed nerd who does occasional entertainment writing for Geek.com on movies, TV, and culture. Once a year you can find him on a couch with friends marathoning The Lord of the Rings trilogy--extended editions. Follow Rob on Twitter at @rjmarvin1.

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